I can't feel comfortable installing any Facebook apps because they require a long list of permission which I feel I don't need to grant. However it's all or nothing which I means either I allow all or the app doesn't get installed. I find this frustrating and annoying.

Is the list of permissions provided by Facebook by looking at all my public fields or are these what the app actually wants to access by specifying them explicitly?

2 Answers
2

The list you are seeing when you install an app on Facebook are what that app specifically requests to use.

The reason that the list is so large on most apps is because most users do not care what information gets shared. If the app creator thinks that the app might use some piece of information in the future from an update, the creator will just add that to the app's list of permissions. With these two things together it doesn't hurt the app creators to add as many permissions as possible to there apps.

The problem is that if I don't agree to one of them, specially if I see no reason them needing it, the app doesn't get installed. The All or nothing proposition is flawed.
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Tony_HenrichDec 4 '11 at 18:50

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@Tony_Henrich It could screw up the rest of the app if a certain part of it is blocked from being used. Thus the reason it's all or nothing.
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FogestDec 4 '11 at 21:27

The list that you see before you install Facebook apps, is the list of permissions that the developer of the application wants to get access to. Often the app's developers often request access to more information than the app needs when it is released, usually to avoid having to prompt users later when they add more functionality.

fPrivacy by chadrs was made to redeem exactly this situation. It allows you to choose which permissions to grant to the application. However, for some apps, if you disable certain permissions you might not be able to use the application. If that happens, you can usually just try again.